The present invention relates generally to an improved remote control, and more particularly, to convenient and easy to use button placement on remote controls.
Home entertainment systems are becoming increasingly complex. A representative user will often have a TV, a DVD player, a VCR, a stereo receiver, and the like as part of his home entertainment system. Using multiple remote controls, each specific to a particular appliance, is very cumbersome and inconvenient to a user.
To address this problem, universal remote controls have become available on the market. Such universal remote controls may control several devices. While such remote controls manage to reduce the clutter associated with multiple device-specific remote controls, they are still often inconvenient to use. Many such universal remote controls have a button for each device, which needs to be pressed before that device may be operated. For instance to watch a DVD, a user may need to press a “TV” button, and then the “power” button on the remote control to turn on the TV, then press a “Receiver” button, and then the “power” button on the remote control to turn on the stereo receiver. The user may also need to select the correct mode for the stereo receiver to provide audio from the DVD player to the speakers. Next, the user would need to press a “DVD” button, and then the “power” button on the remote control to turn on the DVD player. The play button may be used to start playing the DVD. For simple things such as increasing the volume on the receiver, the user would need to press the “Receiver” button again before pressing the “Volume” button. It may be seen that with one universal remote control, numerous steps may still need to be taken by the user for even very simple activities. Moreover, there are several other problems with conventional universal remote controls. For instance, there is a tremendous clutter of buttons. Many universal remote controls have a plurality of buttons wherein many are never (or very rarely) used by the users since the manufacturer attempts to have physical buttons for each possible command of each possible electronic device. Further, such conventional universal remote controls do not lend themselves to efficient and easy programming to control a plurality of external electronic devices. As a corollary, conventional universal remotes are not always properly programmed, thereby leading to consumer dissatisfaction.
Another evolution in remote controls emerged in response to this need. Such remote controls were activity based remote controls, which permitted users to configure simple activities such as “Watch TV”, “Watch a DVD” etc., based on the particular configuration of the user's entertainment systems, and then to simply select the desired activity. Examples of such remote controls are the Harmony® remotes from Logitech Europe, S.A. (Romanel-sur-Morges, Switzerland), the assignee of the present invention.
As more and more sophisticated functionality gets included in a single remote, there is a need to provide users with more options on the remote control. One way in which this is handled is by including additional hard buttons on the remote control. In light of the desire for a small and compact form factor for remote controls, this leads to increased clutter on the remote control, as well as to increased user confusion in dealing with the additional hard buttons. Further, all such buttons are not useable at all times, and it is not clear to the user which buttons are useable at any given time. Moreover, numerous buttons on a remote control take away from a sleek and flat form factor, which is becoming increasingly important to users. Another way to provide users with more options on the remote control is by placing a screen, such as an LCD, having buttons thereon, however this also takes up space on the remote control, and additional buttons are needed to navigate and operate the buttons on the screen.
Users often prefer to have a less cluttered remote control which reflects their usage patterns. Additionally, users often prefer to have a remote control with buttons that are easy to find and use. Ideally, the button placement should be such that a user does not need to look at the remote control to use it, but may instead “blindly” navigate the remote control. Moreover, users often like to be able to receive some feedback regarding which buttons they are touching, again without having to look at them.
There is thus a need for a button layout on a remote control that is intuitive and easy to use. Further, there is a need for a button layout that aids the user in blind navigation, and which additionally provides the user with tactile feedback. Moreover, there is need for a button layout on a remote control that reflects usage patterns.